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Informational 20 Bitcoin

common/clock_time: wrapper for time_now() so we can override it.

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Rusty Russell

65/100 · Adequate
common/clock_time: wrapper for time_now() so we can override it.

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
✓ Specific, descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component✓ Provides an explanatory body
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit adds a developer-only feature that lets Core Lightning's internal clock be overridden via an environment variable (CLN_DEV_SET_TIME). It is intended for reproducible testing, not normal operation. The change itself is not a vulnerability, but it creates a new mechanism that could be misused if an attacker can set environment variables before launching the node.

Recommended action

Treat as a developer/testing aid rather than a security fix. If auditing, verify that CLN_DEV_SET_TIME is stripped from production service environments and that downstream commits replace all security-relevant time_now() calls with clock_time().

Security signals we found

01

New environment-variable-controlled time override (CLN_DEV_SET_TIME)

02

Developer-only code path in daemon_developer_mode()

03

Assertion that override must happen before first clock_time() use

04

No production use indicated; comments and naming suggest testing/reproducibility

Risk score

Why this scored 20/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 2/30
Exploitability 3/25
Stealth signal 4/15
Affected reach 2/15
Confidence 6/10
Evidence quality 3/5
Human-validated context

Community notes

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